Lenore Skenazy has spent the past 15 years shining a light on examples across the country of overzealous bureaucrats and law enforcement officials attempting to criminalize what were once ordinary childhood activities, such as playing outside alone or walking by yourself to the store. Her efforts led to Utah passing the nation’s first “free-range” parenting bill in 2018.
Three other states — Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas — followed with their own versions of legislation embracing childhood independence. The entirely reasonable premise is that granting kids the freedom to be kids enhances their opportuntities to grow into happy, confident and capable adults.
Now Congress may soon be on board.
Last week, Reps. Blake Moore, R–Utah; Janet McClellan, D–Virginia.; and Virginia Foxx, R–North Carolina, introduced the Promoting Childhood Independence and Resilience Act. It would demand that states encourage independence “rather than investigate or punish the parents who permit it,” Ms. Skenazy wrote at reason.com.
The bill includes numerous examples of authorities overreacting to instances of children being left unattended while engaging in normal activities. One such instance involved Rafi Meitiv, who was 10 years old in 2015 when he and his sister walked home alone from a Maryland park. Someone called the authorities, leading to a visit from child protective services.
“They threatened multiple times to take us away,” Mr. Meitiv, now 21, recalled for Ms. Skenazy, adding, “and that’s what it felt like was the end goal — at least from a child’s eyes. They thought that my parents were dangerous, and we’d be better off someplace else.”
Ms. Skenazy notes that, as kids have become more sheltered, coddled and addicted to their devices, free play has declined and, “Today, one in five American kids age 3-17 has a diagnosable mental, emotional or behavioral disorder in any given year.” That’s no coincidence. In addition, she writes, “It is estimated that more than one-third of all children — and more than half of all African-American children — will be the subject of a child abuse investigation before age 18.”
Some of this is surely the result of legitimate concern about child abuse. But too often groundless complaints are filed concerning behavior that was an unremarkable part of growing up just a generation ago. “Many states still operate under laws and policies that give governmental authorities the discretion to tell parents they cannot allow their kids to be unattended, on pain of being investigated for neglect, or threatened with family separation,” said Diane Redleaf, a legal consultant to Let Grow, a free-range kids group that Ms. Skenazy co-founded in 2018.
This bill deserves bipartisan support — including from Nevada’s delegation — and quick passage.
